
Good morning, Uni Watchers, and a Happy Hump Day to one and all.
One of the more popular trends in college football of late has been to go “Icy White,” which is a look with a very specific definition: all four elements (helmet, jersey, pants, socks) are white. This doesn’t mean the uniform is devoid of color, but the point of the look is to wear as much white as possible. Unfortunately, the NFL has of late begun embracing the Icy White look — either with regular uniforms or, in a few cases, with alternates or throwbacks. This article will look at only teams who went full white — there are many teams who go white-below-the-neck (well more than half the league), but several of those teams don’t have white helmets. So a team like the Lions (either before or after their redesign) or the Saints or the Falcons won’t be considered.
Still, 10 teams wore Icy White uniform combinations in 2024 — some good, most not — and here’s the rundown. I haven’t graded or ranked any of them (you can all feel free to in the comments section), but I do offer some thoughts.
Here we go.
Arizona Cardinals

I’ve become surprisingly fond of this uniform — and let’s face it, the Cardinals wear it a lot. It’s three small tweaks away from perfection, too: 1) dump the “CARDINALS” wordmark on the sleeve stripe; 2) change the silver striping to black; and, 3) wear red hosiery. Honestly, this is a surprisingly good Icy White look. If they have to keep the white socks, a Northwestern-esque pattern mimicking the sleeve and pants stripe would do wonders.
Buffalo Bills

Almost every team that goes Icy White would look better with solid, non-white team color socks. That is especially true of the Bills who don’t normally do the full white monty. The Bills have such a great home and road uniform when they pair either the royal or white jersey with white pants. But those great uniforms are only great when the socks contrast. They ended up wearing the Icy Whites a total of three times, which was three times too many for my taste.
Cincinnati Bengals

I’m biased for sure with this one, because I absolutely LOVE the White Bengal look for Cincinnati. There are some unis that absolutely need the full white treatment to complete a look, and the Bengals nailed it. I also like that they were one of the first teams to push the alternate shell rule (as it should be pushed, IMO) towards permitting alternate helmets to be paired with a “primary” jersey. Yes, they technically got a workaround with the rule by designating the “full white” uniform to be an alternate, so they couldn’t wear black socks with these even if they wanted to. But I like the white socks with this one.
Cleveland Browns

As some of you know, I’ve got a couple issues with the Browns’ 1946 fauxback, not the least of which is the adding of a helmet stripe (the 1946 uniforms had stripeless white helmets). If you’re going to the trouble of creating a throwback, even waiting a couple seasons for the one shell rule to expire so you can pair it with a white shell, why would you then add a stripe? Ugh. But even with the helmet anachronism, it’s a stripe-tacular uniform, with stripes everywhere, including the socks! Which leads me to my other gripe. As I noted here, not only shouldn’t the helmet have a stripe to begin with, it’s the opposite striping pattern from the pants! Way to set off my OCD, guys.
But with all that said, it’s still one of the better Icy Whites.
Dallas Cowboys

I realize this is a pretty popular uniform in Dallas and with Dallas fans, but it’s never appealed to me. Originally created as the Cowboys “Color Rush” uniform, it was paired with the silver helmet until the one shell rule was lifted. So the silver-gray stripe down the center of the pants stripe made sense once, but with not an ounce of silver (*ahem*) on the uniform now, the pants look out of place. The white helmet has a white stripe in the middle, going navy/white/navy. The Cowboys should have either added a silver-gray stripe to the helmet, or removed it from the pants. Now they’ve got a bit of a “Packers” situation going. More on them in a sec. But aside from the stripe issue, I just never liked the CR uniform. Clearly they were going for an inverse of the blue jersey, but then they kinda wanted a contrasting yoke from the throwback that morphed into a contrasting sleeve cap. It just never quite worked for me, and once they got a white helmet, they could have made it better by fixing the stripe mismatch.
Green Bay Packers

Where to start? Obviously, putting a green/white/green stripe on the helmet, when the jersey and pants both have green/GOLD/green stripes makes no sense. Yeah, the Browns have the reverse stripe and the Cowboys have the slight color mismatch, but the Packers white helmet was created specifically to wear with the Packers CR set. It’s not just people with OCD who are offended by this either (yes, I have been diagnosed with a minor case of OCD), but pretty much everyone with eyes. The players claim to like the uniform, and I’m sure there are more than a few fans who do, but for the most part, they’re not viewed very positively. I think they’re the worst of all the Icy Whites, and it isn’t particularly close. This uniform has no reason to exist. Had the Packers at least put a gold stripe down the middle of the helmet, it might have been a cool look once a year (not in October, though). These were designed for a late fall/early winter night game in Lambeau with snow.
Indianapolis Colts

Similar to Buffalo, the Colts look fantastic in all-white, but they too really need to wear royal blue socks with these. There is still a decent amount of color even with the Icy White look — so this is one of the better ones — but they look even better with the blue hose. Speaking of helmet stripes…does anyone besides me think this uni would look even better if the helmet had two blue stripes? I know that’s not gonna happen, and the single stripe isn’t a deal-breaker, but man, picture that. This seems to be Indy’s preferred road look now, as they wore it nine times this season, and went all-white with royal hose just once.
Miami Dolphins

Since the Dolphins wear white at home a lot, we were treated to this uniform combination nine times, always full Icy White. The team also have an all-white throwback which was worn once. While I prefer the team to wear aqua socks, the team looks especially Icy when in mono-white. With two complementary pastels, this uniform appears even whiter, especially with a relatively small helmet logo and white facemask. Thankfully the pants have stripes (imagine the Dolphins with Lions or Saints pants!), so that keeps this one from the worst Icy White look, but under bright sun, watching these can be blinding.
Minnesota Vikings

You didn’t forget the Vikings created a special, brand new Icy White uniform this year, did you? Unlike most Icy Whites in the NFL, these were designed specifically as an Icy White alternate, to be worn one game a season. Most Icy White looks in the NFL are just using pre-existing elements, then deliberately worn together to create the full mono-white. Whereas the Packers just got a white shell, threw some green stripes on it and called it a day, the Vikings created a whole new uniform. I don’t love the look, but I appreciate the effort. But the white horn on the white helmet and the heavy use of silver, designed for “Icy” effect, are difficult to make out from any distance. I do appreciate the team even created new bespoke fonts for this uniform, thankfully jettisoning the “sail” font they use on their primary and old CR uniforms. I’m just not overly fond of the design. It’s different, fun for one game a year. It’s a wee bit odd that a dome team (even if they play in Minnesota) created a uniform better suited for an outdoor snow game, but if you must have one, this is the way to do Icy White.
New York Jets

Our final entrant in the Icy White category is another throwback — the Jets’ Super Bowl III retros. I really love these, and think the team did a reasonably good job of recreating the Joe Willie Namath “guarantee” kit. Sure, they could have been a bit more kelly green for authenticity, but otherwise they looked great on the field. Having just two subtle green stripes on the white socks makes a world of difference. If the Colts won’t wear royal socks, maybe they could consider wearing white socks with two royal stripes. It’s interesting that this Colts-clone uniform was introduced at a time the Colts were essentially wearing the same uniform as today. Four full redesigns later, and the Jets have finally brought it back as a throwback. The Colts are still wearing theirs.
Love to have your thoughts on the NFL’s latest trend.
Everybody wants to look like the Nittany Lions…
I love the Icy white uniforms Actually I always loved the All white uniforms even if the Helmet isn’t white It just looks great on TV big-time Professional n Clean n Just looks awesome I’m glad it starting to become bigger in the NFL I wish they would Wear them as a Home uniform Some teams do tho But for the Opposite All Dark uniforms I really hate just ugly look terrible on TV One dark color I hate them Especially All Black uniforms they just are awful looking Teams should trash them immediately.back in the day you never seen that combo Dark pants with dark tops .it just didn’t go in the NFL or College Football But All white uniforms are here to stay for good.I don’t know who my Favorite Icy White team is Vikings n Packers are really great looking N of course The Throw BK Jets are incredible Lions look good also n Buffalo they all look great It’s between Vikings and Packers with the White helmets tough one
I don’t care for the Icy White trend! However, I do like the Jets, Bills, Colts, Dolphins and Cardinals. Each need colored socks, but then they wouldn’t be Icy Whites! I don’t care for any of the others! For me it is difficult to like a white helmet on a team that hasn’t worn one in 50 years.
Your nuts Icy white uniforms are great incredible looking What you like the ugly All dark colors now they are awful terrible looking trash them right away Icy white are the best On TV big-time stand out my favorite
When people are free to be individuals, they tend to copy each other.
GTGFTS
13 Dec 1983
Beginning of OT3 of the highest scoring NBA game ever
Pistons end up beating the Nuggets 186-184 in front of 9,655.
Kiki Vandeweghe (DEN) had the game-high with 51 points. The rest of the players who scored 20 or more:
Isiah Thomas (DET) – 47
Alex English (DEN) – 47
John Long (DET) – 41
Kelly Tripucka (DET) – 35
Dan Issel (DEN) – 28
This scoring column raises a great piece of trivia. In 1962, Wilt Chamberlin scored 100 points in a game. Since then, no 2 teammates have ever combined to score 100 in a game
I’d suggest only the Packers, Vikings, and Bengals are trend followers. The rest of the teams either have standard white helmets, and are just wearing their usual white uniforms, or are wearing throwbacks. The sock part is more just a function of lazy sock policy now. The teams who usually wear white look normal, as they have decades, minus the sloppy sock policy.
Also the Chargers have gone mono white a few times this year as well.
“the Chargers have gone mono white a few times this year as well”
Yes, but not team-wide. All the examples shown today were when all (or almost all) of the players wore white socks. In games where the Chargers had players in white socks, they also wore blue socks — not ideal, but not Icy White. Definitely considered them, but until all (or most) of the team wear white socks, they don’t quite fit the IW category.
To this point, doesn’t that further demonstrate how the socks are less a function of actual uniform design and more a player preference now? I’d be curious how those decisions are made when they all are wearing the same color, does the locker room decide that? Obviously since there are games with mismatching socks the directive doesn’t necessarily come from management on socks.
It feels to me like socks have been dictated less by actual design of the uniform and more by what players want to wear, even when they are all wearing the same socks. The Eagles for example, I doubt the team officially dumped the black socks paired with the white pants, but the players just stopped wearing the black socks, and de facto changed the sock pairing. Such a mess, and unfortunate, because as you note, teams wearing full white look so much better with some sort of contrasting socks, even if they are white socks that have stripes (like the Jets throwbacks).
Seriously? I just rolled my eyes so much, I have a headache.
This. The Jets and Browns are not following the Icy White trend. Those are their throwbacks. For the Colts, Bills and Fins it’s just sock shenanigans. That said, I really like the Bengals’ set, and the Cardinals’, but again, I don’t think that’s an Icy White trend thing, it’s just their normal aways (by far their best look). I really hate the look of the Cowboys, Packers and especially the Vikings (I believe they specifically leaned into the “ice” motif). My Vikings fan son, however, loves them.
Phil, did you mean to say white-below-the-neck in that first paragraph? White-below-the-waist doesn’t seem that remarkable, since it could refer to things like the Cowboys wearing white pants and socks/tights with their blue jerseys, and non-white jerseys are obviously not part of the topic.
Good catch Rob. Yes, that’s what I meant. Now fixed.
Thanks!
GTGFTU: Packers at Steagles, Shibe Park, Dec. 5, 1943, Green Bay won 38-28. It’s a picture in my book about the Steagles (“Last Team Standing”)!
Is the book available?
Yes!
link
I have a copy. It’s really good; thanks for writing it.
All good comments; but Phil I think you’re blocking out the source of the Cowboys Color Rush jersey- it’s a revival of their short lived “Modern Double Star” jersey from 1994. Of course the 1994 had sleeves (for some cuts) so the navy wrapped up on the shoulders more and it had a word mark patch with a star that moved around (first on the right front then centered). It was worn with the silver pants with the navy/white/navy stripes. It was worn in 4 of their last 5 regular season games and both playoff games in 1994, culminating in their loss to the 49ers in the NFC Championship. They then wore it for the 3 1995 preseason games where they wore white jerseys before retiring it (they also retired the original navy set after the preseason and used the blue version of the Modern Double Star as their 1995 dark jersey- a one year look for them that was revived in the early 2000s as their Thanksgiving alt before they went to the throwback style).
The Modern Double Star was another of Jerry’s attempts to put his stamp on the team.
I might be the only one, but I’d like to see the Cardinals add Navy as the complimentary color instead of black.
I’m on the fence enough that I can’t endorse this opinion. Navy would make sense, especially given the state flag, but a) so many teams already use red/navy/white, and b) navy as a trim colour feels weird. I would love to see their black uniform be replaced with navy, as I think navy with red details is great, but red with a tiny amount of navy feels weird. It needs to be more prominent.
If teams wore contrasting socks, would you still consider it icy white? My sense is that icy white means every element is white.
Here’s what I wrote about the definition (2nd graf): “One of the more popular trends in college football of late has been to go “Icy White,” which is a look with a very specific definition: all four elements (helmet, jersey, pants, socks) are white. “
So yes, Icy Whites means all elements are white. If a team wears contrasting socks, then it’s no longer an Icy White.
I think the Packers, Jets, and Dolphins are the best of the bunch. Something to do with the green, maybe?
All white uniforms rule Especially Icy whites Dark uniforms are awful terrible looking Hate when a team wears white tops with Dark pants ugly especially black uniforms
The scoreboard is from the December 13, 1983 game between the Denver Nuggets and the Detroit Pistons at McNichols Arena in Denver. The game ended with a score of 186-184 in triple overtime, with a combined total of 370 points scored. It is the most combined points in an NBA game.
Four players scored over 40 points, a record in a single NBA game. Isiah Thomas led the Pistons with 47 points and 17 assists, while John Long added 41 points. Kiki VanDeWeghe scored a game-high 51 points for the Nuggets, and Alex English contributed 47 points.
Would I be wrong in the statement that the icy whites have become the powder blue fad with MLB in the 70’s/80’s? I know it’s kind of like comparing apples to oranges. But, so many MLB teams jumped on the powder blue bandwagon back then. That was a look I was never fond of either.
That’s a good comparison especially since for both there are examples where it looks great and feels natural, and others where it just feels forced.
I will have to say that the Blue Jays powder blues “fit” there away uniform. Maybe the Expos and Royals too.
I was going to list my good and bad examples for each, and then thought it might be annoying. But yes, those were the first three that came to mind :)
Re: The Packers’ white uniforms. Please do a similar published beatdown of LSU’s white helmet and white pants when paired with the white jersey (or the purple jersey, for that matter). The Packers’ white helmets and white pants, and LSU’s white helmets and white pants should be put in a pile and burned beyond recognition, never to be seen again with no traces ever found of their existences.
Icy White has jumped the shark as much as BFBS has on this site. NYJ is a throwback and you’re calling it Icy White. This site (save for the ticker) has become almost unreadable.
a throwback CAN be an icy white, just as an icy white CAN be a throwback. and “icy white’ just means all 4 elements are white, as stated early on in the article.
I agree that the “Icy White” terminology is overused – it should only be mentioned when the team itself refers to it. But seriously? Unreadable? The Wednesday and Friday tickers are basically the worst content on the site.
Agree completely.
Although I guess it was never that, I wish that this site (or any site) would just report on uniforms (changes/updates) dispassionately. I like reading about what teams are wearing and why (only for elements like patches with numbers or initials) and care less about any writer’s take on them (or the bs story telling that generally accompanies a new uniform set).
It feels even worse when the main editors on this site have been fixated on two elements because of the time when they first started watching sports. Paul and his stirrups (which generally serve no modern purpose and quite frankly are a burden to wear) and Phil and his white fronted baseball caps.
I guess the main thing that really threw me off of this site was when Phil clamored for the Lions to lose (I’m not a Lions fan), just so they would change their uniforms. So Petty.
The Jets’ throwbacks are fantastic but would look ever-so-slightly better if they used the classic green-topped white-striped socks instead. (link) I also like the 1965 logo a bit better than the 1998 logo (football-shaped > oval), but that’s basically a wash.
Re the Jets’ socks: Yes, baby, very, very yes.
Agreed 100%
It’s ALWAYS bothered me that the Jets go with the 2 green stripes socks with the Namath era uniforms.
Which is why I went with the correct socks when I did my redesign/tweak (cheap plug lol):
link
My admiration for the Cardinals road set is well documented…love the silver touches, and the word mark, while unnecessary (though better than a logo) is a minor imperfection.
The SB3 Jets are of course terrific, as are the Colts and Dolphins (though both would benefit from colored ‘socks’).
I’ll never get used to – or like – The Cincy Zebras get-up.
I agree completely with the striping inconsistencies on the Browns, Cowboys, and Packers (as well as the Packers “Icy” look being completely pointless). I love those Jets throwbacks, which also happen to be a perfect example of how the Colts’ would look sooooo much better with stripes on their socks. On that note, why have the Bills stopped wearing their striped socks?! So disappointing. At least the Patriots have a red stripe at the bottom of their blue socks, so it’s not the worst look when they go all blue below the belt.
I like your suggestions to make the Cardinals better, but what about changing the silver/grey stripes to yellow? Or the red stripes to yellow, and the silver to red? They have the yellow beak on the bird, so it’s one of their colors, though minor. Add a yellow face mask and this could be really good. They could also add a yellow pants as an option.
I always thought a yellow facemask with a “feather” design would look cool. Kind of like the Eagles helmet but the shape of the Cardinal head on each side.
I never understood wanting a yellow facemask on the Cardinals helmet to mimic the beak. By that logic the helmet should be red then.
Personally, I will never get mad at a team using the icy white look. Sure there are some needed tweaks with some of the designs but the all white look almost always pairs well against the other team when watching on the screen. To me it’s the combination of the teams that makes or breaks the look.
FWIW a lot of these photos show players wearing an under armour type layer underneath their pants, which is why they look like their wearing white socks.
Yes. I have taken to referring to that as “hosiery” but I also sometimes say socks — but anything the players wear that SHOWS is considered hosiery, even if it’s not socks. So yes, not all players in mono-white are wearing socks; some have compression pants, some have “sleeves” (solid white like socks, but without the base), etc. The important thing here isn’t the nomenclature, it’s the fact that the socks/hose/compression gear/etc. is white.
I agree about the stripping patterns on the helmets for the Packers, Cowboys and Browns. Don’t know what they were thinking.
The Cowboys weren’t going for an inverse of the blue jersey, it was a throwback to the double star jersey from 1994. One of my favorite things about the Cowboys uniform sets is that none of them re-use an element from any of the other sets (other than the helmet with the primary and navy unis). All have different jerseys, pants, and socks. Though I agree that they should add silver piping around the numbers and to the helmet stripe, and then wear navy blue socks. Many of the players wore navy blue socks and accessories in a game in 2023 and it looked SO good.
10 teams did this. TEN. Yuck.
With results ranging from “Pointless” to “Please God, make it stop”. Here are my rankings:
1. Jets – At least there’s precedent here.
2. Browns – I like the stripes.
3. Cowboys – Better than their traditional “50 shades of blue” unis.
4. Bengals – A cool helmet is a cool helmet, even in white.
5. Dolphins – Precedent here as well.
6. Bills – I nothing these.
7. Colts – I also nothing these.
8. Packers – The mismatch of stripes looks like crap.
9. Cardinals – They need a re-brand yesterday
10. Vikings – As bad as these look in pics, they looked even worse on TV.
The Colts all-white is a classic that I’ve always loved. Until I turned nine we lived a few blocks from Memorial Stadium in Baltimore; in that era home games were often blacked out, and my parents gave up their season tickets when I was born, so I mostly saw them on TV in their road whites.
In that era, the socks were white but with significant blue striping. That seems preferable to both the all-white look and the solid blue socks that are now in use.
Icy whites are terrible, bland and boring and they do such a terrible job in bringing out rhe jersey. This past weekend we saw all the road teams look great because the colored pants bought out the tops much better.
Your nuts Ther the best looking Terrible is the All dark uniforms that’s trash terrible ugly All white uniforms